Opinion
4A |
www.newtondailynews.com | Monday | June 13, 2016
Dog days of summer
Start the Press Abigail Pelzer
Editor’s note: This column originally published Aug. 25, 2014 his time of year the piercing sound of the cicadas in our ears acts as nature’s not-so-subtle reminder that the season will soon change. It’s a soundtrack to summer’s end — and a playlist I’m not particularly fond of. Such was the case Sunday when I desperately longed to quiet the noise as I worshipped the sun in the pool, a lifelong favorite pastime of mine. (Yes, mom, I’m armored with SPF30). As I fought the battle between relaxing and entertaining my 8-year-old son, he came up with a great idea — let’s get the dog in the pool. Most folks have a dog for companionship. My relationship with my dog,
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a German Shorthair named Kinnick, is based more on entertainment value, although she is a great buddy too. There was a point in our relationship that I just thought she was little too much work. Most puppies are. She’s a big fan of my husband, and when she was younger she would act out when he traveled for work. She ate everything from extension cords to woodwork to her very own kennel. I’d often come home from work to discover a disaster. (Sidebar: If your dog ingests wire, such as an extension cord, you have to feed her tuna-soaked cotton balls so it doesn’t do any harm in passing. Seriously, I’m not making this up.) So while I thought our pup was kind of cute, I also thought she was a
giant pain in the rear. Then something happened around her second birthday. By that time she had less of the puppy behavior … and she didn’t mind when I put a party hat on her to commemorate her second year in the family. Thus began the tradition of me dressing up my dog. All of those sweaters, costumes and other dog attire you see in the store and shake your head at — yea, I’m the one that buys that stuff. As for Kinnick — she loves it. I will stand by that statement until the end of time, despite the many, many friends that have suggested I’m torturing her. It’s my belief that she enjoys the attention she receives from the extra time I spend with her, to the inevitable photo shoot. Besides, getting dressed up makes any gal feel good. I’m almost always on the lookout to get a laugh out of our pet, so the swimming idea was one of pure bril-
liance. Of course, it didn’t go as smoothly as I anticipated. It was a three-man job to coax her into the pool and it took a raft to convince her to stay. I wouldn’t necessarily describe her as fond of the water. To watch her doggy paddle was hilarious. To observe a dog straddling an inflatable raft was even funnier. Again, I think it was the attention she enjoyed the most, although by the end of her first lesson she seemed a bit more comfortable in the water. By the end of the ordeal, I realized I was enjoying some of the final summer moments of the season before they slipped away. Then I realized some of my favorite seasons lie ahead. Honestly, I’m rather excited about the Ghostbusters costume I found for my dog. This has to be the ideal time of year to snatch up a dog bikini on clearance. Contact Abigail Pelzer at apelzer@newtondailynews.com
Eye on America John Stossel
Not Trump or Clinton Finally! Voters have another choice. The Libertarian Party nominated two socially tolerant but fiscally conservative former governors, Gary Johnson and Bill Weld. Weld? Isn’t the former Massachusetts governor just another Republican? He didn’t act like one when he and Johnson sat for an interview. “This is the dream ticket for me,” began Johnson. “He doesn’t look like a dream,” I responded rudely. “He’s not thought of by us libertarians as Libertarian.” “Weld got the A from Cato Institute,” said Johnson, referring to the libertarian think tank. “Weld was declared the fiscally most conservative governor in the country ... First day in office, Bill Weld furloughs 8,000 employees.” I hadn’t known that. “Nine percent of the state workforce,” said Weld, “and I never received a single postcard asking, ‘Where are those essential 8,000 employees?’ I cut the budget 14 percent my first two months. Piece o’ cake ... I’d love to see the federal government receive cuts like that.” Me, too. Johnson added that his running mate was “progay, pro-choice and pro-medical marijuana at a time nobody else was talking about this stuff.” But Weld also supported the Iraq War, saying that George W. Bush had “grown in office.” As Massachusetts’ governor, he backed the drug war and restrictions on gun ownership. Today, about Iraq, he said, “I wasn’t exactly waving flags when the invasion occurred ... That Iraq thing has turned out to be one of the worst mistakes ever.” Why did he push gun regulation? “There are a lot of bills kicking around in Massachusetts. I’ve been a hunter my entire life, a gun owner my entire life. I really consider myself a Second Amendment guy.” Today, Weld says he’s ready to legalize marijuana. Johnson goes further, “I’m not advocating legalization of other drugs, but if we legalized all drugs tomorrow, the world would be a better place. Ninety percent of the drug problem is prohibition-related.” Both candidates sounded pretty libertarian to me. “We don’t buy the dog food that either party is selling,” said Weld. “We don’t buy government making decisions for people in their private lives, part of the Republican Party platform, and we don’t buy the Democrats’ penchant for spending money that we don’t have.” Do Libertarians have a chance? Early polls show Johnson getting 10 percent of the vote, even though most Americans don’t know who he is. Once people get to hear him, that number will grow. Lots of people want to elect someone other than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. “If Mickey Mouse were the third name, Mickey would get 30 percent,” said Johnson, “but Mickey’s not on the ballot in all 50 states.” Good point. Libertarians are the only third party likely to be on the ballot in all the states. Trump calls Libertarians and Johnson “a fringe deal.” “Spot on!” replied Johnson. “Totally fringe! Small government, fiscally conservative, socially liberal.” What else do Libertarians stand for? Speeches at the nominating convention offer a sample: “A conservative will fight to live free. A Libertarian fights for everybody to live free.” “There exist in America more laws than an average reader could read — reading 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 600 years.”
THE FIRST
AMENDMENT
Our immigration policies are ridiculous I recently stayed with a friend who lives just a few miles from the Mexican border — and near the start of the Pacific Crest Trail. Since I was there anyway, I thought, what the heck? I might as well hike a bit of it. I’d walked less than a quarter mile from the wall at the border — yes, there’s already a wall along much of the border — when Border Patrol stopped me. “Out taking nature photography, Miss?” the man asked. “That your Toyota?” The next time I went out, I returned to find Border Patrol parked behind me, inspecting my car. The last time I was on the trail, at about nine miles from the border, I could see the highway for a brief section of my hike. I watched a white and green Border Patrol vehicle pass. Then another. I jokingly thought I should start counting them, but I doubted I’d see any more. Then three more passed in about as many minutes. I hope they’re either making a major drug bust or going to a staff meeting, I thought. Because otherwise this is ridiculous. Unfortunately, “ridiculous” is winning out. Our country will shell out upwards of $14 billion to blanket our country with Border Patrol agents this year. Yet about 40
Another View Jill Richardson percent of undocumented immigrants arrive legally and overstay their visas, so any effort to “secure the border” with a wall or patrols won’t catch them. As for the people actually apprehended at the border, NPR reports that a growing number are refugees fleeing violence in Central America who turn themselves in voluntarily. I don’t know about you, but I’m not all that concerned about letting in 13-year-old Salvadorian girls escaping murder threats back home. The other major stick the government uses with undocumented immigrants is deportation. But that may be making the situation in Central America worse, since deported gang members contribute to the violent situation there, driving more people to flee northward. And consider how crops rotted in the fields in Alabama and Georgia when those states stepped up immigration enforcement and the undocumented laborers who worked on farms there were forced out. In short: What are we doing? I don’t claim to have all the answers, but it appears that simply doubling down on border enforcement isn’t one of them.
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In the era of Trump, any policy that can be called “amnesty” may sound politically toxic. But what if we did grant amnesty to law-abiding undocumented immigrants who are already here? That could free up our immigration authorities to focus on criminal drug cartels and terrorist threats, instead of people who came here peacefully to support their families. As for the drug gangs, wouldn’t it be smarter to deprive them of their lucrative business? Already there are signs that the legalization of marijuana in a few states has taken a big chunk out of their profits. Or we could modernize our immigration quotas, so that coming here legally wouldn’t mean waiting upwards of 20 years, as it does now for Mexican families. It stands to reason that if one could come here legally, one would choose to do so. The alternative — crossing a desert on foot at great expense and risk of death, and then hiding in the shadows once here — is a much worse option. Instead of simply focusing on border policing and deporting anyone who lacks documentation, we should take a more systematic approach to assess our priorities — and then craft policies that achieve them in a cost-effective and humane way. OtherWords columnist Jill Richardson OtherWords.org.
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